The Question
by Raleigh's Haven
Summary: Here’s my version of what happened after Wyatt returned home from the past. One-shot. My first story, so please review


Summary: Was anyone else bothered by the fact that they didn't bother to talk at all about Chris? And the fact that Wyatt didn't mention anything about the future? Well here's my version of what happened after Wyatt returned home. One-shot

Melinda's head shot up at the orbing sound that filled the room. Holding her breath, she waited until the glowing orbs turned into her older cousin. Once she was certain it was him she let out an excited squeal and threw her arms around him. "Where were you?" She asked him, hitting him playfully on the shoulder. Wyatt grinned in return, but chose to say nothing at the moment. Melinda took his arm and quickly started pulling him up to the attic, where the rest of the family was. "We were so worried about you. You just vanished! One minute you were there and the next you were … poof! Aunt Piper was freaking out! She thought a demon had taken you! And Chris, oh boy was he mad. He went down to the underworld about two hours ago to try and find out if a demon had taken you. And Uncle _Leo_ was having a major panic attack. I think he may have gotten a few more grey hairs since you were gone. Oh Wyatt, where did you go? _Did_ a demon take you? Did you fight him back? I bet you vanquished 'im, didn't you. Of course you did, you're Wyatt! Duh, what was I thinking. I told Mom and the aunts that you'd be fine, that you could handle yourself, but they just don't listen to me, you know? Guys, I found him!"

Melinda had taken greatly after her mother in the rambling department, and no one ever seemed to get a word in when the girl was on a roll. She had brown hair cropped right below her ear, and very much resembling Phoebe when she had first learned of her powers. Melinda was nineteen years old, and although she could practically carry on a one-sided conversation with ease, she wasn't nearly as obnoxious as one would think. She was very caring and dedicated, working as a secretary at her Mother's old newspaper. Phoebe had since moved on to her own television show. She still kept the newspaper that had started her out in high esteem, though. Unlike her mother, however, Melinda had sharp blue eyes, inherited from her Father, Conner Lowe. Phoebe had met the intelligent warlock through an unusual fiasco in which she had been turned evil and Conner had been her first victim. The sisters had managed to turn their sister back before Phoebe could commit her first kill, and the old rule that says if the first meeting goes bad, the relationship will work out good seemed to take full run of the situation from there. The two were happily married and lived not too far away from the manor. Only a few streets away.

"Wyatt?" Piper asked, being the first to speak up. Her face lit up with relief, and then contorted with anger and worry. "Where were you, young man?"

Wyatt shrugged simply with a grin, his gaze falling on all the members in the attic. Melinda was still at his side, smiling happily at her parents who were sitting on the couch. They seemed to have been in the middle of running through some spells on a sheet of paper when Wyatt had arrived. Piper and Leo had been huddled over the book and his Aunt Paige had been in the middle of scrying.

"You were gone two hours," Paige said, not even looking up from the map. "Go anywhere important?" Although it was about twenty three years from the time Wyatt had just come from, his Aunt Paige still looked rather young and attractive. It was the whitelighter genes in her, after all. She only seemed more mature now. She wasn't married yet, but she had plenty of time, being a whitelighter and all. She still lived at the manor with Piper, Leo and the boys, much to her chagrin. She still wanted a place of her own. But the manor was the place to be and was easily affordable at the moment, seeing as you weren't exactly paid to be a whitelighter, which was all Paige had the time to be, when she wasn't being an Aunt or a charmed one. Or even a sister.

Wyatt crossed his arms over his chest. "Yes, actually, I did," He said with a smirk.

"Good. And now that you're back you can go and retrieve your neurotic brother from the Underworld," Paige said, finally looking up to meet the boy's eyes.

"Yea, I heard he was down there," Wyatt said, losing his confident smile for a few minutes. "Is everything okay?"

"No, no, everything's fine," Piper said with relief. "We were just worried about you is all. And Chris, for that matter, but he can handle himself."

"And I can't?" Wyatt asked with mock pain.

"Oh Wyatt, we all know you can handle yourself very well," Phoebe said quickly, getting up. "But you know Chris. We couldn't keep him here if we tried to."

"Yea, I know," Wyatt said, smiling again. "And he'll flip when he founds out where I've been."

Leo raised an eyebrow. "Oh really? And where was that?" He inquired.

"You'll see," Wyatt said.

"You seemed surprised to leave," Conner commented.

"I was at first," Wyatt admitted. "But wait until you guys find out. Chris is going to be so jealous. I'll go get him." With that he orbed out of the room.

Piper threw her hands up in slight irritation. "And he goes again," She grumbled.

"Honey, relax," Phoebe said. "He'll be right back, after all. He's just going to get Chris."

Paige narrowed her eyes. "Did anyone else think that whole seemed a little … familiar?"

"Yea, now that you mention it …," Leo said, looking to his sister-in-law.

"I'm lost," Conner said.

"Join the club," Melinda replied, her hands on her hips. "He just orbed in with that big grin on his face. Mom, he wouldn't even tell me anything."

Paige smirked. "Did you give him the time to?" She countered.

Melinda frowned, but took the joke lightly as she started pacing around the room. "Well at least we found him," She finally said.

"Or he found us," Piper replied, still staring at the spot Wyatt had occupied moments before. "Now that you've mentioned it, Paige, Wyatt seemed _really_ familiar."

"Well you've only seen him every day of his life. I'd sure hope he looked familiar," Melinda said sarcastically.

Piper gently smacked her on the arm. "That's not it," She grumbled.

"I'm back!" Wyatt announced, appearing with his fingers gripped on a struggling Chris. The younger turned away with a remote scowl.

"What was all that for?" He demanded, rubbing at his bruise.

"I've got an announcement to make," Wyatt said.

"Good. Now go make it to the rest of the geek club and leave me to finish off that demon," Chris said.

"Demon?" Piper asked with alarm. "What demon? Are you okay?"

"Mom, I'm _fine_," Chris exclaimed, moving away as Piper tried to look him over. Then he tossed a quick glance at Wyatt and murmured, "Unless you count the big bruise I'm gonna get from Wyatt."

The older sibling rolled his eyes at the comment. "Relax Mom, I took care of it," He said simply. "Now guess where I went when I disappeared from here?"

"The zoo?" Chris questioned. "You smell awful."

"Unfortunately little brother, you may not have realized that you were the one rolling around in demon gunk. You're lucky I knew that clean-up spell," Wyatt said.

"Stalling," Phoebe pointed out.

"Right. I went … to the past," Wyatt said.

Everyone in the room blinked at the announcement.

"Eh … what?" Piper finally asked.

"I _knew_ that outfit looked familiar!" Paige exclaimed, jumping up.

Wyatt turned to Chris. "And I saw you, little brother. As a baby!"

"Before or after I swallowed the marble?" Chris questioned.

"Whoa, whoa," Piper said, putting her hands up. "Why didn't we think of that _before_?"

"I'd forgotten about that," Phoebe said sheepishly.

Leo smiled warmly at Wyatt. "Did you have fun?" He asked him.

"Yea," Wyatt replied. "You guys were a lot more … entertaining," He finally said.

"Gee, thanks," Piper said.

"No, no, no," Wyatt said quickly. "I mean you guys weren't as …"

"Parent-y?" Chris provided.

"I don't think that's a word," Wyatt replied. "But that's exactly what I mean."

"Wait, you were in the past? Before or after I was born?" Melinda asked with interest, rubbing her hands together.

"Before," Phoebe said quickly.

"Oh," Melinda replied, slightly disappointed.

Phoebe wrapped her arms around her daughter protectively. "I still knew about you, though," She said.

"I should have known when you asked me about my cousin," Wyatt said.

"So that's it, then?" Chris asked, looking a little flustered. "You disappeared because Mom and the Aunts had a spell go wrong in the past, and you just got back now?"

"Pretty much," Wyatt said.

"Well, tell us about what happened," Conner finally said. "Three of us weren't there, after all."

"Oh, yes!" Melinda exclaimed, just before her beeper went off. Frowning, she looked down at it. "Err, no, scratch that. I'm needed at the office."

"What's wrong?" Phoebe asked with concern.

"Oh, Mr. Dean just doesn't enjoy all these little 'family emergencies' I have," Melinda said, shaking her head as she tucked the pager back onto her belt buckle. "And since the disappearing boy has returned from his escapades in the past, I have a backlog of work. Chris, can I get a lift?"

"Sure," The whitelighter answered, taking Melinda's arm and then orbing out. No, Melinda was not referring to Mr. Dean as in Jason Dean, Phoebe's ex- boyfriend. She was actually referring to his son, who now ran the newspaper. He was a little older than Melinda, twenty-two, and fresh out of college. He was taking over his father's old business, and still had no clue that Melinda's mother and his father used to date. Nor was he aware of their little 'secret' as to why the woman had so many 'family emergencies'.

"Well now that all that is finally taken care of," Piper said, heading towards the door.

Paige stretched. "I need a nap," She said as she orbed out. Only Phoebe, Wyatt, Conner and Leo were left.

"I'd better go help your mother get dinner ready," Leo said. Then he quickly made his descent.

Wyatt frowned, watching his Father disappear down the stairs. Then he turned to his Aunt.

"It'll be nice to just get home and relax," Phoebe said. Conner grunted an agreement, a little too tired to talk at the moment.

Wyatt looked the two over. "Aunt Phoebe?" He finally said as she was heading towards the door.

She looked back at him. "Yes?" She asked. Conner stopped too, waiting for his wife.

"In all the excitement of being in the past something slipped my mind. When I first saw Mom and Aunt Paige … Mom mentioned something about not wanting to change the future again. What did she mean by that?" Wyatt asked her.

Phoebe paled, glancing back at Conner, who had also stiffened. "It was … nothing," phoebe said quickly.

Wyatt crossed his arms over his chest. "I let it go then because Mom didn't need my questioning, but I'm curious now. What did you guys change?"

"Really Wyatt, it was so long ago. And there were so many possible futures that we altered. How am I supposed to remember exactly which one?" Phoebe asked with a slight frown. "It's nothing, really."

"What's nothing?" Chris asked as he orbed back into the room.

"Nothing's nothing," Conner said. Chris raised his eyebrows in confusion.

"I'm missing something, aren't I?" Chris asked.

"Look Wyatt, if you really want to know … ask your Mother," Phoebe said. "It isn't my place to say."

"Aunt Phoebe," Wyatt said.

"You know it isn't her place," Conner said, putting his arm over Phoebe's shoulder and leading her down the stairs.

Chris turned to Wyatt. "What's going on?" He asked.

"When I was in the past Mom mentioned that she didn't want to change the future again. I'm just trying to figure out what she meant by it," Wyatt replied.

"Why didn't you ask her then?" Chris asked as the two began out of the attic.

"It was obvious Mom didn't want to talk about it, so I just let it drop. Besides, I'd much rather confront the woman who's been my Mother for the past twenty-five years, not someone who didn't really know me," Wyatt explained.

Chris shrugged. "So ask her. I'm sure it isn't that big a deal," He answered, turning to start down the final staircase to the foyer.

"Look out!" Someone called.

Chris quickly ducked just as a fireball hurtled in his direction. "Haven't demons ever heard of breaks?" He muttered under his breath. Wyatt took hold of his shirt and pulled him up, standing on the staircase. Before him his parents, aunts and uncle were being overpowered by many demons.

"Enough!" He snapped, throwing his arms out. Much to his surprise only two or three demons out of the vast many disappeared. "Chris?" He asked, staring at his hands. The younger man moved his brother to the side before flicking his wrists to telekinetically move a dagger away from his Mother. Paige had her arms up so that an orb-like shield began to surround the group. It had almost entirely encased the Halliwells when the light flickered out and vanished all together. Surprised, Paige didn't have time to dodge the fire ball that came at her. Crying out, she stumbled into Phoebe, who was channeling the hate in the room back at the demons. After a minute, however, the dark green glow that emanated from her finger tips vanished, and she stumbled out of her levitation. Piper's powers also ceased to work. Demons wouldn't even freeze. Chris threw his hands out again, but thins time nothing happened.

"What's going on?" Wyatt demanded. He rushed into the foyer and began fighting demons using his body instead of powers. The others quickly picked up, taking the potions that they did have and tossing them off in all directions, while turning a dagger every now and then on the demons. Still, whenever one demon was vanquished another would shimmer in and take its place. The room was vastly filling capacity, and the group was quickly outnumbered.

"Cease!" Someone finally shouted out. The demons quickly backed away from the group, many of them taking to shimmering out while a few stayed in their spots, waiting for what seemed to be their master. The voice had come from the stair case, and it wasn't long before a figure clad in black approached. Piper's hands fell to her side in surprise as the other's gawked.

"Chris?" She asked, staring at the man.

"Eh … what?" Wyatt asked in confusion. The man smiled darkly at his younger brother, and then his other self, who seemed to be just as confused as he was.

"I've been waiting for this day," The Dark Chris said, meeting his counterpart's eyes. Then they moved on to Piper and Leo. "It's so nice to see that I'm remembered."

"Chris?" Phoebe choked out.

"I don't understand," Conner finally said. "Chris is right here!" He gestured to the young man standing next to Wyatt.

Dark Chris met Wyatt's concerned eyes. "I've been waiting for this day," He said finally. "When _somebody_ would bring me back."

"Imposter," Chris finally spat out. The other Chris started laughing, followed quickly by his demons. He moved down the stairs, and approached Leo.

"What, Dad? No welcome back?" he asked coldly.

"You're not my son," Leo snapped, looking the boy over.

"What's the matter, _Pops_? Don't you remember me?" he asked.

Leo searched the man's face, trying hard not to tell himself it was his son. That his son was standing to the side. Leo leaned in closer, and said again, "You're not my son," more harshly this time.

"Never could accept it, could you?" Dark Chris asked, looking his Father up and down. "Well that's okay, because you're not my father." He looked about ready to say more when someone jumped out of nowhere and tackled him to the ground.

"How dare you come here and act like me?" Chris snapped, raising his fists and preparing to bring them down on his double.

Dark Chris chuckled from beneath him, then raised his own fist, only to shoot Chris off of him with electricity. The man flew threw the air, and clung to the wall as electricity began to shoot through him.

"Stop it!" Wyatt exclaimed, furious to discover that again his powers didn't work. He started for Dark Chris when several demons held him back. Without looking at Wyatt, Chris smirked.

"I should really thank you, Wyatt. If you hadn't asked Aunt Phoebe that question, I would still be stuck in oblivion," Dark Chris said. He jerked his hand back and the other Chris fell to the ground … unconscious. Piper quickly rushed to his side, as did Leo. Paige placed her hand on Wyatt's shoulder as Phoebe held tighter to Conner. Brushing back Chris's hair from his face, she looked over to Wyatt.

"What's he talking about?" She demanded.

"Oh god," Phoebe said, her hand over her mouth in realization. "It's you. But – but you're good."

"What are you talking about?" Wyatt demanded. "Who are you? And what have you done to my brother?"

"He's fine," Dark Chris said simply. "I just couldn't bear to completely harm myself. No matter how idiotic I may be."

"How?" Phoebe asked in a whisper, staring at the Dark Chris with watery eyes.

"What are you talking about?" Paige demanded, looking to Phoebe, then Wyatt, and finally Dark Chris.

"Tell them, Aunt Phoebe. After all, this is one secret that could be dangerous to keep," Dark Chris said, smiling cruelly.

"It's Chris," Phoebe choked out, glancing to Piper and Leo. "The Chris that … that died," She spat out.

"Very good," Dark Chris said.

"What?" Piper demanded.

"But .. you died. I saw you," Paige said, staring open-mouthed at her nephew.

Leo said nothing, however, just stared at Chris.

"Yes I did," Chris agreed.

"That's impossible! Chris isn't dead! He's right there!" Wyatt cried, pointing to the silent form beneath his Mother's fingers.

"How about you tell him all about me, _Leo_?" Chris asked, his arms crossed arrogantly over his chest.

Leo grimaced. "You can't be him," He finally said. "He died a good, kind man. He died for his brother -."

"He died because you couldn't save him. _I_ died because _you_ were too weak," Chris growled, his furious gaze snapping to his father's.

"What's going on?" Wyatt asked.

"Tell him, Leo," Chris hissed through clenched teeth. Then he smiled evilly. "Tell him about how you let me die."

"You know there was no way I could have saved you, Chris. That dagger was cursed."

"There was a way around it. But it's okay, I'm not mad at you. I'm through with being mad at you," Chris said. Then he turned to Wyatt. "There was a time when you were an evil tyrant, _brother_. It seems you were right, when you said all that mattered was power … domination."

"No," Wyatt said, narrowing his eyes at the man.

"Yes," Chris said. He opened his mouth to say more when Piper interrupted.

"Stop," She pleaded. "We didn't tell them for a reason."

"But he still found out, didn't he?" Chris countered. "At least, he suspected. Otherwise I wouldn't be here, would I?"

"Chris, don't do this -," phoebe started.

"Silence!" Chris snapped. He looked at his Aunt, and her mouth seemed to vanish off her face. Chris laughed with interest.

"It's amazing what being nonexistent can do to you," Chris said, flexing his fingers. "You can create anything. And then when you're brought back … you can _be_ anything." He looked shrewdly at his Aunt Paige. "tell him," He growled.

Paige frowned, and then looked to Wyatt. "He's right," She said. "I know we should have told you, but … it was so difficult."

"I don't understand," Wyatt said.

"Chris came back from the future. About four months after you were born. He came to stop you from turning evil, and destroying his future. In his time, we'd all been dead, and it was just him left. For so long we didn't believe him - that you would turn evil. When we finally accepted it, we were quick to learn that Chris was actually Piper and Leo's second child. After he was … err, conceived, time was short to find who turned you. In the end, it turned out to be an elder who believed you would be too powerful and a threat to the world. In trying to kill you, Chris got stabbed, and we couldn't heal him. The dagger was cursed, and he vanished. That's the story," Paige said.

"And everyone moved on happily with their lives as if nothing ever happened," Chris said sarcastically. "Well _not_ anymore. I see you're all powerless. So the spell worked quite well, as I figured it would. Now the only question is how to get rid of you?"

"Why are you doing this?" Conner finally asked.

"I've had a lot of time to contemplate," Chris said, looking at the man. "And I realized how right Wyatt was. Power _is_ everything. And now that I'm here, I need to destroy you. Then no one will stand in my way."

"You're crazy," Wyatt said, looking at his brother sadly. "You could never be Chris."

"And you could never be Wyatt. At least not the Wyatt I knew. What a waste of time that whole year was. Perhaps I should just go back and fix them, hmm?" Chris asked. Then he shook his head. "No, that would take too long. I'll just have to get rid of you now."

He lifted his arms, his fingertips beginning to burn with flame that would soon envelope his hands before they would destroy his family. "Hold still," He said softly. Just as he was about to let his power rage on those who had once been his family, the ground shook. Chris's hands dropped to his side and his face shot up, glaring around the room with his black eyes.

"Forget somebody?" A voice asked as Melinda stepped out from the other room. She looked apologetically at her Parents. "Sorry it took so long. Adam didn't quite pick up on things until a few moments ago," She said. A young man quickly took his place beside her.

Chris scowled. "I thought you were at work," he said darkly.

"And I thought you were dead," Melinda said.

"You knew about Chris?" Conner asked with surprise.

Melinda frowned nervously. "Not until a few minutes ago," She admitted. "It took a while to build up enough power."

"We got here as soon as we could, though," Adam said, moving over to Paige and Wyatt. Adam was a close friend of Chris and Wyatt's whom they had met through magic School. He worked with Melinda at the newspaper, and had empathy. He could always tell when something was wrong with the two brothers, ever since the three had cast a spell to connect them as if all three were brothers. The bond had been destroyed when their parents found out about it, but there was some semblance of the spell that remained. It was how he had caught on to what was going on at the manor. He also had the fortunate power of transportation with the blink of an eye, which he had inherited from his Mother – a demon turned good.

"Well isn't this just the family affair?" Chris asked. "Bind them."

Before the guards could approach the two, however, Melinda pulled out a sheet of paper and began to rattle off a spell while Adam channeled confusion back to the demons. Realization hitting him, Chris stood straighter. "Stop it!" he exclaimed. Melinda, however, continued. "I said stop it!"

Chris ran forward, about to tear the paper out of Melinda's hand when she finished. She looked up and met his eyes as the powers of her family returned to them.

Wyatt looked down at his hands with relief, and then looked angrily at Chris. "You're not my brother," he said, raising his hands.

"And I never will be," Was the echoed words that came as Wyatt blasted him with power. Chris disappeared. Not in the usual ways that demons or even dark creatures usually did. But as he vanished into thin air, so did his demons. After a moment, the Halliwell family was left in the silence of the room.

"Wyatt, heal Chris," Melinda pleaded as she dashed to her cousins side. Wyatt nodded, darting to his brother's side, still uncertain how to react around his parents.

"Do you think he's … gone?" Paige asked, staring at the spot where the man had vanished.

Chris groaned as he sat up. "What happened?" he mumbled.

The family exchanged a considerate glance, silently agreeing to not tell Chris about what had _really_ happened.

"A demon – a shape shifter, actually – attacked. He was pretending to be you," Wyatt said softly.

"Did you get him?" Chris asked.

Wyatt looked skeptically back at the spot where his evil brother had just stood as Melinda said, "Yea. Wyatt vanquished his sorry ass."

"Oh. Good. So can we have dinner now?" Chris asked.

"You and food," Adam said with a laugh, helping the other man to his feet.

"I'll get started on it," Piper said, quickly disappearing into the kitchen.

"What's wrong with her? In fact, what's wrong with all of you? Why the sore faces?" Chris asked.

"it was just a … strange fight," Phoebe said, pulling away from her husband and looking at her nephew.

Chris frowned in confusion, but ignored it as his stomach let out a growl. Grinning, he said, "I think I'm gonna snag a snack. Anyone else want one?" he asked, heading for the kitchen.

Everyone quickly murmured an agreement and followed after him, leaving Wyatt alone in the room. He stared at the spot where the Evil Chris had vanished, a feeling of dread falling over him. He couldn't toss the feeling that he had just vanquished his brother. Even if it wasn't him in actuality. Frowning, he looked up to the ceiling as he contemplated what he had learned only moments before. It didn't bother him, all that much. He had suspected something like that, as Chris had pointed out. He knew full well that he wasn't evil now, and he still had his family. He was nothing like that other Wyatt. It wasn't this that he was worried about at all. Glancing down at the still empty space, Wyatt allowed his body to fill with a sort of dread. No, he wasn't worried that in some alternate future he had been evil. Right now he was worried that this may not have been the last he would see of that other Chris.

"Wyatt?" A voice called from the doorway. The mentioned turned around to see his Chris watching him. "You coming? Mom made her apple pie before you left, remember?"

"Yea," Wyatt said, smiling at his brother. "Yea, I'm coming."

AN: I know the story may seem a little rushed, but that's just the way it came out. So hope you guys enjoyed, review if you feel like it!


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